ACTION ALERT: Passengers Seize the Momentum in the Senate

Senate Appropriators Increase Rail Funding: Thank your Senators ahead of Thursday's full committee markup!

The Senate Appropriations THUD Committee released its transportation budget this morning and thanks to YOUR calls we saw a positive change in funding for rail and transit:

• $1.7 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration, $76 million above the FY2016 enacted level;
• $525 million for TIGER grants, $25 million above the FY2016 enacted level; and
• $2.3 billion for Capital Investment Grants (New Starts), fully funding all current Full Funding Grant Agreement transit projects.

Significantly, all three passenger rail grant programs created by the FAST Act received funding -- a testament to the work being done by advocates like you!

(Table updated to include more detailed numbers issued by the Senate Appropriations Committee)

[The Senate THUD FY2017 Proposed Levels bill summary identified $334 million for Rail Safety & Research Programs, not completely accounted for in this table; the total funding level identified by the Committee is $1.7 billion.]

If you called your Senator in support of this bill, please take a moment to thank them. If your Senator is on the Appropriations Committee (full list included below), then your call is even more important: the full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the THUD bill on April 21st. At this hearing, individual amendments will be permitted, so there's a chance we could push investment in trains even higher!

Thank you for your action,
Jim Mathews | President & CEO | NARP

Appropriations Committee